A local Italian group launched an online petition urging Pope Francis, the Vatican and others to stop the “fir tree-icide” of cutting down a 200-year-old red pine to decorate St. Peter’s Square for Christmas.

Defending the dignity and sacredness of every human life requires working to create economic and social systems that promote the common good of all, Pope Francis said.

Jeremy Belk started the day Nov. 10 with a full head of hair and a beard. By the end of the day, his brother had shorn him of it all.

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its second year, expanding to a wider region of the Middle East, two Catholic agency leaders based in Jerusalem and Beirut are warning the conflict is decimating the populations they serve.

A great many things will matter when JD Vance enters the West Wing of the White House to take office after he is sworn in Jan. 20. How might his Catholicism impact what he brings to a new Trump administration and the business of running America?